Have you bothered to look at your own website or that of your competition lately? We all do a great job promoting new and used car sales on our web pages, yet we place the service tab somewhere on the home page. Since the service department sells the second, third and forth vehicles wouldn’t it be prudent to have something regarding your fixed operations on the home page to peak your customer’s curiosity?
When I studied various dealership websites around North America, I was stunned by the miniscule amount of dealerships that have an introduction to service staff. What a great way to promote your business and raise morale, have your staff represented on your website? Posting a few videos of your shop foreman or team leader explaining your repair processes or an advisor performing a vehicle walk around are powerful tools to attract new customers and a great way to coach your existing ones.
Why are we as an industry constantly posting coupons? Coupons are a great offering however why are we not utilizing our sales department to offer discounts? What if we develop, advertise and display signage that states, “We offer the best price and service - everyday”? Nothing! If dealerships posted that they have the best price and services and backed it up with additional 10% off servicing if the customer takes a test drive in one of your new vehicles, you are sure to sell more vehicles.
Customers who test drive a new vehicle will be so impressed with it, they will tell their family, friends and coworkers. This is marketing at its best. Advertise this feature right on your home page. Place your online appointment scheduler tab right on your home page - don’t make your customers jump through hoops to book the next appointment. Your customers want ease of serviceability from the use of the on-line scheduler through the service experience itself. Stop being old and out of date and start being BOLD, REFRESHING and GREAT!
The more you inform your customers that you have the best price and service, the more they believe it because they read it wherever they go within your establishment or when they visit you on your web page. Place posters in the service write up area, in the lounge, the coffee bar area and heck even post it in the showroom. The more you tell them the more it becomes reality. "Geez they MUST be the best priced, I read it everywhere I go".
Search through your database and find out the mileages that most vehicles are coming in for multiple services and package those services. For example if your customer base that keeps their vehicles four or five years and have high mileage vehicles that require brake, transmission, power steering and coolant flushes - package these services and bundle them together. Your technicians and the dealership will still make money and probably more of it due to the fact that there is overlapping labor. The tools are already out, equipment is out and therefore the task becomes easier. Sell more, make more and be seen as offering a deal… Bundle your services - large internet and cable companies spent millions to find out ways to make more money - learn from others -BUNDLE!
Tires! I personally love tires. Tires give you the ability to examine the vehicle in detail, sell brakes, front end repairs and perform alignments. Now I know what you are all saying in your heads right now, “Tires have the lowest gross profit margins in the service department”! You are right, they do! Yet tires enable you to offer a commodity that is always in demand and allows you the opportunity to inspect and up-sell additional work. Therefore my question is this, “Why do dealers try and make a profit on the tire sales”? Why not sell tires for just above cost and use them as your loss leader to entice YOUR customers into YOUR dealership. Advertise TIRES right on your home page! WHY NOT?
Express lube anyone? Dealerships that have express lube lanes have much higher retention rates then dealerships that have not incorporated this strategic offering in their lineup. Express lube also enables you to capture a segment that is most likely going to your competition, and this competition is not even your same brand competition. Your customers are frequenting the Jiffy Lubes, Midas’s and Goodyear stores because they have done the research and found that a large segment of their business is generated from performing rapid lube or express lube along with discount tire installations.
It doesn’t matter what your dealership decides to place in its advertising and marketing lineup, some of this MUST be on your dealership homepage to showcase your offerings and your uniqueness to your customers. Why be the same old dealership when new and exciting can win the day.
We are a business sector that prides itself on selling new, bold, fresh and unique products, such as the model lineups of our vehicles. We advertise that OUR vehicles have such and such benefits and features yet we don’t place a high priority on listing WHAT IT IS THAT WE DO up front and center on our dealership home page. To be unique and different entails doing more than the same old things we have always done. Isn’t doing the same old things over-and-over again expecting different results, the definition of insanity?
David
